


Speak Up

by orphan_account



Series: The Library [9]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 01:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11151600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: His chest shouldn’t be this tight just watching Keith sitting on the couch in the rec room. It shouldn’t bother him that Keith isn’t paying any attention to him, his eyes instead downturned on his jacket as he inspects a worn seam. The way Keith’s dark hair falls over his eyes, the way he curls his legs up under himself when he’s comfortable, how his fingers move over the cloth with such care. The furrow in his brow. The soft pout on his lips. The shape of his shoulders under his shirt. Shiro shouldn’t care about these things. He shouldn’t want these intangible, indescribable things that only Keith has.But he still does. More than ever.





	Speak Up

He should do it. 

He should just do it. Get it over with. Rip off that metaphorical bandaid because every time he looks at Keith, he feels the half healed wound of his affections tugging at his heart. It’s really stupid, to still feel like this.

His chest shouldn’t be this tight just watching Keith sitting on the couch in the rec room. It shouldn’t bother him that Keith isn’t paying any attention to him, his eyes instead downturned on his jacket as he inspects a worn seam. The way Keith’s dark hair falls over his eyes, the way he curls his legs up under himself when he’s comfortable, how his fingers move over the cloth with such care. The furrow in his brow. The soft pout on his lips. The shape of his shoulders under his shirt. Shiro shouldn’t  _ care  _ about these things. He shouldn’t want these intangible, indescribable things that only Keith has. 

But he still does. More than ever. 

Keith has never thought about him like that. He knows it. Because even back in their Garrison days Keith always had so many things that were more important than a relationship. His piloting. Classes. Tests. Overcoming the obstacles of his past. Shiro could always help him with all those things and encourage him to scrap together some kind of social life besides, but that was all. Keith didn’t have room in his life and Shiro didn’t have the right to barge into what little space was left and demand attention for himself. 

And that was then and this is now and the possibility of even a smidge of anything happening between them is ludicrous to consider. Shiro’s been gone for a year. He’s changed, done things he can’t ever talk about because he can hardly bear to think them to himself. He’s been molded into a different person. Something strange and distorted and  _ not normal. _

Keith has changed too. Who had been independant because he was forced to and because he was too scared to trust anyone else isn’t there anymore. Now Keith is independent because he knows he can handle himself on his own. Because he trusts everyone on this ship to back him up if he can’t. Keith...doesn’t need him. And Shiro has to admit that he’s proud of him for it. Keith has had time to forget about him and move on to be a better person. 

But then Keith sets his jacket down in his lap, leans into the arm of the couch and glances up at him through his bangs. Just a little. But asking. 

Maybe. 

Keith doesn’t say anything but Shiro knows, in the pit of his stomach, what that look means. He wants to say something, but he’s not sure. It’s the same look he gave Shiro all the time when a quiet moment would pass between them on Earth. Something hanging there in the space between them and Shiro aching over whether he should reach out and pluck it out of the air. Tell him he loves him. That he always has. That he wants that space to not  _ be  _ there anymore. 

He’s staring. 

Keith smiles. Just a little quirk at the edge of his mouth as he sets the jacket to the side and sits up. Attentive. 

Keith’s listening. 

Maybe he should speak up after all.

**Author's Note:**

> @quiddid on tumblr


End file.
